Editors Note: This article has been updated with various pictures from this event.

Mooncakes, lanterns, Chinese food and family sitting around a round table are familiar themes during the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional Chinese holiday celebrating family reunion and appreciation for the moon. The Hill School decided to hold a mass celebration for international students that will include authentic Chinese food and lantern painting to build a sense of community during the current challenging circumstances. 

Due to the limited space, each international student will only be allowed to bring one non-international friend, and signups are through email. The event will be held on Saturday, starting at 5:30 p.m. 

Isa Pan ’21, one of the international prefects responsible for the event, said, “During such unprecedented times, it is very difficult to organize a lot of celebrations for international students. Because the Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festival in China in which families reunite, we thought that it fits perfectly with Hill’s family school idea. In particular, we want international students, especially the new ones, to just feel like home.” 

This festival has the biggest budget of any event put on by the international prefects this fall. Led by Amber Cao ’21 and Isa Pan ’21, the committee plans to order 11 dishes from local restaurants Han Dynasty and Hong Kong Wok; plus mooncakes, Chinese baked goods traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival, to serve around 80 to 90 people. In addition, there will also be an arts section in which crayons and pencils will be provided for students to decorate their own aqua-lanterns, another traditional element of the celebration, which will be released on the Dell. 

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Mooncake Festival, is a traditional festival celebrated by Chinese and other people included in the Sinosphere. The festival is held on the Aug. 15 of the Chinese lunisolar calendar, when the Chinese believe the moon is at its brightest and fullest side. Lanterns and mooncakes are essential elements of the celebration. Lanterns of all sizes and shapes are carried and displayed as the beacons to light the way to prosperity and good luck. On the other hand, mooncakes, a rich pastry typically filled with sweet-bean or lotus-seed paste, symbolize family reunion. 

Cao explained that the “Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the major holidays that we can celebrate when we are at school this year, because of the timing, so that the community can celebrate a major holiday together. However, there are going to be other holidays, celebrations virtual over H-term, or there might be another one at the end of this month, called International Day, Oct. 24. We are planning some things for it; it might just not be as big as this one.”